Abstract
Expectancy Violation Theory (EVT) (Burgoon & Jones, Citation1976), a theory that until now has been exclusively used in intrapersonal communication, is used to explore the influence of humorous mass media messages in a political context. An experiment (N = 85) demonstrated that a mass media message can trigger an expectancy violation. It was found that expectancy violations influence (1) participants’ perceived humor of the message and (2) participants’ evaluations of the source. Results confirm hypotheses that participants in the expectancy violation condition found the message more humorous, and rated the source of the message more favorably than those in the control condition. However, political ideology was found to moderate these effects.
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Notes on contributors
Whitney Walther-Martin
Whitney Walther-Martin is a PhD candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.